reflections of a pragmatic optimist, lover of freedom

Month: November 2015
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Following are collected thoughts I posted to Twitter this Thanksgiving — reposted here with Twitter-isms tidied up. This is the stuff in my heart of hearts that I strive to remind myself of:

It’s a fine day to be reminded, to practice the gratitude I strive for each and every day. I am grateful for a true abundance of blessings.

I’m grateful for the culture I grew up in and have loved and treasured all my life. Thank you, America, and those who’ve risked all for our freedom!

I’m grateful for all of you, who labor with me to strengthen and preserve this magnificent, precious Civilization we are so lucky to call home.

I’m grateful for childhood, for the time and place where I grew up and all that it showed me about what we can be and achieve.

I’m grateful for my children, for their chance to see the world anew, without yet knowing the burden of worry about our future. I’m grateful for the opportunity to see the world anew through their eyes, through their genuine candor and boundless curiosity and enthusiasm.

I’m grateful for our indomitable spark — for hope of A Way Out and the chance to reignite this great experiment in Liberty.

I’m thankful for the abundance we enjoy, for our boundless capacity to create when we are truly Free.

I’m grateful for those who’ve sacrificed to safeguard this Civilization. Thank you and much respect to our veterans and active duty.

I’m thankful I got to know the American Way of Life before the era of “Fundamental Transformation”. It is everything I’ve ever wanted.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to reflect and get to know myself better: to understand what I am about and why, and what I must do next.

I’m thankful for the dedicated contributions & inspiring examples of patriots like Bill Whittle. I hope one day to repay what I’ve been given. (Thank you, Bill! — And Happy Thanksgiving!)

This Thanksgiving, and in the days to follow, choose gratitude. Be thankful for the nation, for your life, for those whom you love and those who love you, flaws and all. Like a muscle, you can strengthen this virtue with regular exercise.

…

Seneca wrote that we even should be thankful for the most “fleeting and slippery possession” of all — the time we have left on earth. … None of us know if we have a day left or a century, but we should choose to spend each minute in gratitude.

Sounds like a good practice to me. I’ve added “gratitude” as a post category, to help remind myself to give thanks and look on the bright side.

I took to Twitter in the aftermath of November 13th’s horrific, barbaric Jihadist attacks on Paris and her people, rather than posting here. To my resigned dismay, I am at a loss to see what more can be said at this point, or what will change the state of deep denial about such things that we seem to be stuck in. It’s excruciating watching this horror recur so predictably, and I wonder, as I have for so very long now, what it will take for the West to wake up, stop making excuses for Jihadist atrocities, and really and truly stand up for its values.

I’ve pleaded for an end to this willful blindness, as have others with far greater eloquence, dedication, and courage. By now, we’ve been shown more than enough to be able to see that shunned and vilified critics of the Islamic world like Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Tarek Fatah, Brigitte Gabriel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and others have been right to sound the alarm. “Tolerance” is all well and good in theory, but “When tolerance becomes a one-way street, it leads to cultural suicide.” You can’t tolerate people whose chief ambition in life is to kill you.

Below was the scene in the Bataclan Theater, where people were gunned down and tortured by having their stomachs slit open, where survivors pleaded for the lives of their loved ones and waited helplessly as tens of minutes went by, wondering whether they and theirs would be next to be systematically murdered by Jihadis who stood there, methodically reloading without any apparent fear of being stopped. It grieves me to have to post something like this. There is a temptation to look away. We mustn’t. This is the face and work of an enemy that will not relent until we decisively confront and unconditionally subdue its murderous, bloodthirsty army. This is utterly barbaric. There is no excuse for it. We must at long last find the moral courage to commit to decisive actions that match our ephemeral and easily uttered words of defiance, or those words will have had no meaning.

About Me

An ex-Californian, I seek escape from culturally and economically stifling Progressivism and European-style “social democracy” to live and celebrate the classically American Way of Life — one founded in the optimism, initiative, entrepreneurship, boldness, achievement, cultural confidence, and love of Liberty that I grew up knowing and fell in love with.